No Man Is An Island

[cedar_grove]

This is the day when dawn
receives our saffron cakes
in her sacred temple.
This is the day which honors
the bond between sisters
and the freedom of all women.
There is no slavery today at the threshold
of the temple. Today all women
are joined in the joys of motherhood:
for we hold up, not our own, but
our sister's children to the sun.

--Ovid, Fasti

Community does not bond us now as tightly as in ancient times. There is freedom in contemporary life, a freedom that few experienced in earlier times. But the price of that freedom is the loneliness that comes from being severed from connections with, and responsibility for, others.

I think sometimes even on a family level that is true, so when you find that connection within a family bond, within family ties, it is a beauty to behold and be a part of - and something that is very sorely missed when one is apart or away from it.

Is it sad to say that I first encountered this kind of community - this kind of family - when I went to Chapel Hill... way back the first time. Of course I didn't appreciate it for what it was back then, just looking back on it do I realise it for what it really was. Glorious and the way things [i]should[/i] be... and honestly, truly, I think it's Southern thing, and you can call that stereotyping if you like, I'll hold my hand up to it, but it also happens to be true. They don't call them stereotypes for nothing.

Here was a place where people cared about each other and helped each other out. Here was a place where families really behaved like families... supporting each other and offering solace not judgment. So warm and supportive, loving and everything that was my idea of community and it was so easy to be myself as a part of that atmosphere...

How I miss it... I mean, I still have times when I can be a part of that, at a distance is not the same as being a part of it there.

Of course, there is also the down side to it in modern, or contemporary society - that even when it exists, it's not always as immediate as it could be - as the sense of community in the past, where, if someone needed help, everyone rallied round as soon as they heard and help was mere moments away. Yes, the physical communities were smaller then, and neighbors really were within a stonesthrow. Now communities are so much wider and time is a factor, with people so busy with our overcomplicated modern lives. For example, our landlady is notorious for using the friends in her church community for getting things done - which unfortunately means she often doesn't get things done. I was horrified the last time, when my guy was left in physical danger by faulty electricity, and had to wait more than 24 hours for the electrician friend. Words fail me.

We do need that greater connection though - so I believe anyway - humans are nothing if not social creatures. I think we forget that sometimes way too much as well as everything else we, in our human arrogance, forget. Who was it said "no man is an island"?